Since we have to make the most of summer and extend it as long as we can, here in New England we tend to cram a lot of fun events into the summer months: seafood festivals, outdoor concerts, barbecues, sunflower mazes, lighthouse cruises. As we stare September in the face, let’s remember the very best of our summer days! So Wickeds, what’s your favorite New England-y thing to do in the summer?
Liz: I live in what’s referred to as Mystic Country, which has a whole host of things to do in the summer. One of the really cool offerings are the Sentinels on the Sound lighthouse boat tours. Guests jump on a boat and get a tour of area lighthouses. They have night tours, too, which are way cool – especially the full moon ones!
Jessie: In Ocean Park, ME they host something called Illumination Night. All over the tiny community they light up their houses and yards with fairy lights and candles. The effect is magical. People from all over wander down the narrow streets enjoying the way the shadows play and the lights twinkle.
Edith: In my town they have Amesbury Days at the end of June. There’s a big block party downtown, an annual farmers’ market where I typically sell lots of books at my table, an antique car show, and lots more. But the best part is the fireworks a couple of miles up the 
road at the town-owned Woodsom Farm (this year held on July 3). Everybody brings blankets and chairs and spreads out on a huge hillside. The fireworks go off from a field across the way, so the viewing is perfect. They close the road to cars afterwards so what feels like the entire town walks back together. It’s such a cool event I decided to place a murder during the fireworks — in 1888!
Julie: Well, I’m a sucker for the many events that happen outside in the Summer. Commonwealth Shakespeare’s King Lear was terrific. Landmarks Orchestra does a bunch of wonderful free concerts, Outside the Box was terrific, and there are festivals all the time in and around Boston/Somerville/Cambridge. There are tons of fun things to do in the summer, but I’ve got to confess, some of the best “summer” events happen in September, just under the summer wire. I’m talking about the Scallop Festival in Bourne, the Fluff Fest, and (I’ve been told, looking forward to finding out) the Big E.
Sherry: There’s a Fluff Fest?! Sign me up! Summer must do’s in New England include a Red Sox game, a drive up the Maine coast for a lobstah roll, and a trip (okay, trips) to Bedford Farms Ice Cream. The picture to the right shows the kiddie size cup of ice cream — you should see the large! Now that we live in Virginia we cram all of those things into every summer trip.
Readers: What’s your favorite summer event, in New England or elsewhere?
My summer favorite has to be Marblehead Race Week, especially the J-105s. Race Week has everything else that I crave. Lobster and steamers. Picnics on the beach. Music. Old friends.
That sounds wonderful Reine!
(Weird, thought I replied to this a couple of hours ago.) Sounds perfect.
I thought you had too, Edith! 🙂
Yes… you did. It was something I said about Bedford Farms ice cream. Ohhhh…. wait. That was on a post you made linking here, I think. <3
Wow, I feel like I’ve been cooped up most of the summer (except for one delightful trip to Vermont, and a hectic few days in New York). But one of the nicest experiences of this summer happened just this week. I have a friend who keeps a camper parked next to the Cape Cod canal. I had lunch with her and we sat outside watching boats go buy–giant oil tankers pushed by little tugboats, gorgeous private yachts (with or without sails), tour boats, a Coast Guard cutter, and more. What is interesting is that the current on the Canal changes direction with the tide. Since my great-grandmother had a house on Cape Cod for a bit (long before I was born), I wonder if she saw the big bridges being built.
And if we can sneak in September: Brimfield Antiques Fair starts on the 8th!
Some day I will make it to Brimfield.
Sorry Sherry, I’ll take Kimball’s for my ice cream. 🙂
I never made it to Kimball’s — can you believe that? So close to Bedford too!
Yum, Kimballs.
We celebrate our wedding anniversary by hiking over to the old airport which has now been turned into a huge park, for the annual “Taste” festival and rock concert. “Third Eye Blind” this year, and I spent my time plot-storming a murder.
Plotstorming. Love that word!
The Salem Willows for a pepper steak sandwich at Loews Chinese. The Horribles Parade in Gloucester. Ice Cream at Richardson’s Dairy in Middleton. The art galleries at Rocky Neck, Gloucester. A trip to Mousam lake, Maine to rekindle fond childhood memories.
I love walking around the art galleries at Rocky Neck dreaming about what I’d buy if I could!
One of my favorite mud runs is the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, which takes place in June.
And I have played ultimate Frisbee summer league every year (but one) since 1999, and I always look forward to the tournament at the end of the league.
There may be a mention of ultimate Frisbee in book three.
I give the book 5 stars with a bonus Frisbee.
(Kimballs is killer, isn’t it?) Well, this is not a summer event, but it’s a sure sign of summer when the Canandaigua Lady moves from winter storage to its dock near Kershaw Park on Canandaigua Lake. Several times a day, she toots her air horn, turns her double paddle wheels, and takes visitors on a tour (lunch, anyone?) of our beautiful Finger Lake. –kate
That sounds fabulous!
my favorite summer event is when the weather turns to fall like and summer is gone. do not like it at all